You asked for it and here it is.

So let me explain what this is. I did a Batting Game Finder search for all games with HR=1 as well as all games HR=2. That refers to individual player performances, not team totals. So, any one game could register 5, 6, 7 or more times if that many players hit 1 or 2 HR in the game. Total team performances, as well as any games where an individual hit 3 or more HR, are ignored. (Of course, 3+ HR games are extremely rare by comparison to 1 and 2 HR games.)

Then, for each year, I divided 1 HR games by 2 HR games. As you can see, in 1956 there were approximately 15 times as many 1 HR games as 2 HR games. Through about 1985, the ratio generally increased. It’s very difficult to tell whether that was due to generally more 1 HR games, or generally fewer 2 HR games, since the HR totals overall vary from year to year.

I note that 1987 shows a local valley for ratio. In this year, balls were flying out and a lot of players who didn’t often hit homers hit them out this year. Lots of guys had seasons with 10 or 20 homers who rarely hit more than 5 in a year. At those total rates, it’s likely that most of the HR came one game at a time, and therefore the number of 1 HR games was likely up significantly while the number of 2 HR games was probably up just a bit.

And then what do we see in 1993? This is undoubtedly the beginning of The Steroid Era, as much data and analysis has shown. We see not only did the ratio drop off, but the noise from year to year has been much smaller than for the 40 or so years prior. I think this is easily explainable: many more HRs have been hit, with lots of guys amassing 40+ in a year. With these totals, the likelihood of 2 HR games is much higher than with just 10 or 20 HRs in a season, and therefore more 2 HR games are happening, dropping the ratio a bit. (Mind you, 1 HR games are still about 15 times more common.) The other reason for the drop in year-to-year noise is because more HRs are being hit. We have more events spread over the same 162-game schedule, so things tend to even out. For those not statistically inclined, just think of the opposite–counting a really rare event, such as a no-hitter. Some years there are none, and some years there are 5. The year-to-year noise is huge. But for much more common events, the rates tend to even out and be more regular from year to year.

So there you have it.

Tonight, Brett Gardner made his major league debut leading off for the Yankees.  I was a bit surprised because I thought that leadoff type players  usually start off their careers in the “double leadoff” spot. I did a PI search for all players making their debut batting leadoff in games with a DH. Here are the results. (There is one player (not in the link) who made his debut hitting leadoff in an interleague game with a DH. Bonus points if you knew that it was Mike Colangelo. )

60 previous times since 1973, including 5 in 2002. (Some teams, such as the ‘95 Royals and the ‘94 Mariners tried it twice.) However, Gardner is the first since 2002.

Over at The Hardball Times, Dave Studeman wrote: (EDIT: It was actually written by Craig Calcaterra)

“I imagine Jayson Stark will tell me if I’m wrong, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that this is the first time a team has had three hits over the course of two games and split ‘em.”

Let’s see what PI can tell us about games since 1956.

First lets look at the games which Andy posted yesterday:
Of the four previous teams to win with no hits  only the 1992 Indians followed (or preceded) their no hit win with a low hit (3 or less) loss. The Indians won the first game of a double-header with no hits and lost the second with 2.

The second thing we can check are teams that have played consecutive games with 2 or less hits. We can then pick out the teams with at least one win and at most 3 hits.
Here are the teams that  meet Studes’s criteria. (click on the links for details) :

1969 Angels

1967 Mets

1964 Orioles

1961 Red Sox

The last thing we would need to check is those teams who lost no-hitters and followed that up (or preceeded it) with a 3 hit win. Unfortunately, there have been too many lost no hitters to do a quick check and PI doesn’t offer a quick way to check . So if anybody has the time or knows of  faster way, I leave that to you.

David Robertson made his big league debut on Sunday - for the Yankees - facing the Mets at Shea Stadium. 

What other Yankees players played their first big league games as a visitor in Shea Stadium?  Just two - Tyler Clippard and Brandon Claussen.

Jaime Cerda is the only Mets player to ever make his big league debut as a visitor in Yankee Stadium.

Four pitchers…and three of them have last names that start with “C.”

I wonder if Robertson knows that he’s ruined a fun little clue to a trivia question answer?

The Dodgers beat the Angels last night despite getting zero hits. By now, many of us know the list below pretty, well, but here are the previous 4 times since 1956 that a team won while getting no-hit:

  Cnt Date          Tm   Opp GmReslt  PA  AB  R  H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS LOB Batrs
+----+-------------+---+----+-------+---+---+--+--+--+--+--+---+--+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+-----+
    1 1992-04-12(1) CLE  BOS W  2-1   32  25  2  0  0  0  0   2  7   0  6   0  0  0   1   0  6  1   6     9

    2 1990-07-01    CHW  NYY W  4-0   31  26  4  0  0  0  0   0  5   0  3   0  0  0   3   0  1  1   3    11

    3 1967-04-30(1) DET @BAL W  2-1   40  24  2  0  0  0  0   0 10   1  3   2  4  0   1   1  1  0  11    14

    4 1964-04-23    CIN @HOU W  1-0   31  29  1  0  0  0  0   0  2   0  9   0  0  0   2   0  0  0   3    10 

That 1967 game between the Tigers and the Orioles is absolutely bizarre. Click on the date for the box score. The Orioles got a hit in the 3rd and a hit in the 7th. These were the only hits in the game for either team, and they did not figure in the run scoring. The Orioles squeaked in a run in the 8th with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly. Then the Tigers put together a bizarre two-run rally in the 9th helped along mainly by walks and a wild pitch.

Ken Johnson’s game in 1964 does count as a no-hitter officially, even though he lost. He pitched a 9-inning CG since the Reds were on the road at Houston. The rest of the games on this list (including the LAA-LAD game not yet shown) do not count as official no-hitters.

Reader WillyB asked about historical rates of 2-homer games vs 2-triple games, these being performances by individual players in the games, as opposed to total by each team.

Using the batting game finder, I generated the data for the following graph:

First, here is a description of what you are seeing. For each year, I found the total number of times a player had two homers in a game as well as the total number of two triples in a game. Then, I divided by the total number of team games played that particular year. So any given game counts twice–once for each team involved. So this tells you that the incidence of 2-homer games peaked around year 2000 at roughly 7% of games. So on a day when all 30 teams played, on average 2 different guys had 2-homer games. Jeez.

For triples, I went ahead and multiplied the data by 10 just so it would be on a similar scale to HRs, but in your mind you need to divide by 10. Incidence of 2-triple games peaked around 1960 not at 6%, but rather at 0.6% of games. This means that any given team playing a full 152-game season might see, on average, one two-triple game from one of its players per season. By 2000, the rate bottom out around 0.2%, meaning roughly a team would see one of its guys have two triples in a game roughly once every 3 seasons on average.

After Matt Garza’s one-hitter last night, Tampa Bay is now in the lead so far in 2008 for most team games allowing 3 or fewer hits, with 8 such games.

The Rays also lead the majors in most games started by a pitcher 26 years old or younger. They’ve got 78 such games. Yep, every game they’ve played so far this year.

Reader JSE asked in the Suggestions about who holds the record for most career ABs with strikeouts in every single AB. He cited Daniel Cabrera as having 11 careers ABs and 11 K’s.

Turns out, Cabrera is the record-holder, at least since 1901. Here are all 134 careers with at least 11 AB and a batting average of zero. A quick comparison of the AB and SO columns shows that Cabrera is the only guy with as many SO as AB.

Junior Herndon got close with 11 Ks in 12 ABs.

Mind you, I think there are tons of guys who missed by 1 or 2 strikeouts but also got at least 1 career hit, so they don’t appear on this list without a career batting average of zero.

A note a Peter Abraham’s blog got me to thinking about this search. Most consecutive interleague games reaching base at least once:

                   StreakStart  Streak End Games    AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  SO   BB   SB   CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Teams
+-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 Barry Bonds        2001-07-15  2004-06-18    43    134   31   46   6   2  13   29   18   59    3   0  .343  .549  .709 1.258 SFG

 Jason Giambi       2001-07-13  2004-06-08    41    136   35   46   7   0  15   44   31   38    0   1  .338  .489  .721 1.210 OAK-NYY

 Matt Lawton        1999-06-05  2001-07-12    37    142   23   59  12   1   4   21   11   19   11   3  .415  .491  .599 1.090 MIN

 Bobby Abreu        2001-06-15  2003-06-08    36    132   24   48  10   2   4   17   31   31   12   0  .364  .482  .561 1.043 PHI

 Derek Jeter        2006-06-25  2008-06-19    34    136   24   52  13   1   4   18   14   17    6   2  .382  .455  .581 1.036 NYY

 Hideki Matsui      2004-07-03  2007-06-19    33    122   19   45  11   0   6   33   12   17    1   1  .369  .443  .607 1.050 NYY

 Vladimir Guerrero  2001-06-14  2003-06-03    32    126   26   47   7   0   8   16   14   13   13   4  .373  .440  .619 1.059 MON
 Barry Larkin       1999-06-11  2002-06-21    32    121   18   38   7   1   1    4    8   23    6   2  .314  .424  .413  .837 CIN

 Magglio Ordonez    2006-06-19  2008-05-17    31    110   27   47   9   0   3   28   13   16    1   0  .427  .500  .591 1.091 DET
 Vernon Wells       2002-06-07  2003-06-28    31    117   26   41   3   1  10   21   18   12    2   0  .350  .420  .650 1.070 TOR

 Orlando Cabrera    2006-05-19  2007-06-19    30    123   14   39   9   0   1   14    6    8    8   0  .317  .356  .415  .771 LAA

 Ichiro Suzuki      2006-07-01  2008-06-18    29    117   21   54   6   2   2   14   14   14   21   1  .462  .519  .598 1.117 SEA
 Brandon Phillips   2003-06-13  2007-06-09    29    106   21   37   3   2   4   15    9    6    5   0  .349  .379  .528  .907 CLE-CIN
 Jim Thome          2001-06-16  2002-06-30    29     93   20   31   5   0   9   22   33   29    0   1  .333  .492  .677 1.169 CLE
 Mike Piazza        2001-06-09  2002-06-21    29    106   18   40   7   0  10   26   19   18    0   1  .377  .468  .726 1.194 NYM
 Nomar Garciaparra  1999-07-20  2002-06-18    29    105   24   42  11   0   5   15    8   15    2   1  .400  .467  .648 1.115 BOS
 Paul Konerko       1999-07-18  2001-07-08    29    106   17   38   8   0   5   22   14   10    0   0  .358  .415  .575  .990 CHW

 Victor Martinez    2005-06-10  2006-07-02    28     95   14   31   7   0   1   17   12   18    0   0  .326  .440  .432  .872 CLE

 Melvin Mora        2005-06-13  2007-06-08    27    100   15   33   6   0   3   14   16   11    3   0  .330  .412  .480  .892 BAL
 Lance Berkman      2005-06-17  2007-05-20    27     96   12   29   5   0   5   22   22   17    1   0  .302  .414  .510  .924 HOU
 Bobby Abreu        2005-06-09  2006-07-02    27     99   13   35   7   1   2   19   20   22    7   0  .354  .475  .505  .980 PHI
 Frank Thomas       2002-06-28  2004-06-17    27     92   24   29   7   0  13   27   21   20    0   1  .315  .444  .815 1.259 CHW
 Mark Kotsay        2002-06-22  2004-06-16    27    109   21   38   9   0   3   10   11   16    2   3  .349  .432  .514  .946 SDP-OAK
 Brian Giles        1999-06-07  2001-06-08    27    102   21   34   7   1   9   24   13   22    1   0  .333  .460  .686 1.146 PIT
 Joe Randa          1999-06-05  2000-07-07    27    102   20   45   9   3   4   20    6   15    0   1  .441  .504  .706 1.210 KCR                                         

So Bonds has the record at 43, but it’s Derek Jeter at 34 with the longest active streak. Magglio Ordonez had his streak snapped at 31 earlier this year, and Ichiro also has an active streak at 29. The next-longest active streak I could find is Justin Morneau at 19.

In his article on ESPN.com today about the pathetic Seattle Mariners, Jim Caple pointed out that Willie Bloomquist has no extra base hits yet so far this year. Here are the leaders among non-pitchers since 1958, in terms of most ABs in a season with zero XHB. Bloomquist already ranks pretty high, although he of course could come off at any time if he hits one down the line.

  Cnt Player             **AB**  XB Year Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+-------+---+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Dwain Anderson      124     0 1973  25 TOT NL  71 144  16  15  0  0  0   3  18   0  33   0   2   0   2   2  0  .121  .232  .121  .353 *6/58
    2 Dave Nelson         123     0 1969  25 CLE AL  52 137  11  25  0  0  0   6   9   1  26   1   2   2   2   4  3  .203  .259  .203  .462 *4/79
    3 Mike Gallego        120     0 1995  34 OAK AL  43 132  11  28  0  0  0   8   9   0  24   1   2   0   3   0  1  .233  .292  .233  .525 465
    4 Pat Corrales        120     0 1972  31 TOT NL  46 135   6  23  0  0  0   6  13   2  26   1   1   0   1   0  0  .192  .276  .192  .468 *2
    5 Paul Casanova       104     0 1974  32 ATL NL  42 113   5  21  0  0  0   8   5   2  17   0   1   3   2   0  0  .202  .232  .202  .434 *2
    6 Tom Egan             94     0 1974  28 CAL AL  43 109   4  11  0  0  0   4   8   0  40   1   6   0   3   1  0  .117  .194  .117  .311 *2
    7 Otis Nixon           91     0 1984  25 CLE AL  49 103  16  14  0  0  0   1   8   0  11   0   3   1   2  12  6  .154  .220  .154  .374 *7/8
    8 Juan Castillo        90     0 1988  26 MIL AL  54  94  10  20  0  0  0   2   3   0  14   0   1   0   1   2  0  .222  .247  .222  .469 456/7
    9 Ty Cline             88     0 1966  27 TOT NL  49  94  15  24  0  0  0   8   3   0  13   2   1   0   3   3  1  .273  .312  .273  .585 89/7
   10 Broderick Perkins    87     0 1979  24 SDP NL  57  97   8  23  0  0  0   8   8   2  12   0   1   1   3   0  0  .264  .323  .264  .587 3
   11 Orlando Ramirez      86     0 1974  22 CAL AL  31  97   4  14  0  0  0   7   6   0  23   0   4   1   1   2  1  .163  .215  .163  .378 *6
   12 Joe Millette         78     0 1992  25 PHI NL  33  87   5  16  0  0  0   2   5   2  10   2   2   0   8   1  0  .205  .271  .205  .476 *6/54
   13 Doc Edwards          78     0 1970  33 PHI NL  35  86   5  21  0  0  0   6   4   3  10   1   3   0   4   0  0  .269  .313  .269  .582 *2
   14 Greg Gross           75     0 1989  36 HOU NL  60  88   2  15  0  0  0   4  11   2   6   1   1   0   3   0  0  .200  .310  .200  .510 /9371
   15 Dal Maxvill          74     0 1974  35 TOT ML  68  90   6  14  0  0  0   2  10   0  14   0   6   0   2   0  0  .189  .286  .189  .475 *64/5
   16 Remy Hermoso         74     0 1969  22 MON NL  28  81   6  12  0  0  0   3   5   0  10   1   1   0   3   3  1  .162  .225  .162  .387 *4/6
   17 Jose Oquendo         73     0 1993  29 STL NL  46  89   7  15  0  0  0   4  12   1   8   0   3   1   5   0  0  .205  .314  .205  .519 64
   18 Walt Hriniak         73     0 1969  26 TOT NL  38  85   4  16  0  0  0   1  10   1  12   2   0   0   3   0  0  .219  .329  .219  .548 *2
   19 Rusty Torres         72     0 1980  31 KCR AL  51  80  10  12  0  0  0   3   8   0   7   0   0   0   1   1  3  .167  .250  .167  .417 97/8
   20 Chuck Scrivener      72     0 1977  29 DET AL  61  80  10   6  0  0  0   2   5   0   9   0   3   0   1   0  0  .083  .143  .083  .226 *6/45
   21 Luis Gomez           72     0 1975  23 MIN AL  89  81   7  10  0  0  0   5   4   0  12   0   4   1   1   0  2  .139  .182  .139  .321 *6/4
   22 Phil Gagliano        72     0 1970  28 TOT NL  44  79   5  12  0  0  0   7   6   0   8   0   1   0   1   0  1  .167  .231  .167  .398 4/53
   23 Cecil Espy           71     0 1990  27 TEX AL  52  82  10   9  0  0  0   1  10   0  20   0   1   0   1  11  5  .127  .235  .127  .362 *8/974D
   24 Orlando Gonzalez     70     0 1980  28 OAK AL  25  80  10  17  0  0  0   1   9   0   8   0   1   0   0   0  2  .243  .329  .243  .572 3/D7
   25 Tommy Dean           70     0 1971  25 SDP NL  41  80   2   8  0  0  0   1   4   0  13   0   6   0   2   1  0  .114  .162  .114  .276 *65/4
+----+-----------------+-------+---+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
  Cnt Player             **AB**  XB Year Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+-------+---+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
   26 Rick Bosetti         69     0 1977  23 STL NL  41  76  12  16  0  0  0   3   6   0  11   1   0   0   0   4  4  .232  .303  .232  .535 *7/89
   27 Manny Alexander      68     0 1996  25 BAL AL  54  73   6   7  0  0  0   4   3   0  27   0   2   0   2   3  3  .103  .141  .103  .244 6/4571
   28 Felix Fermin         68     0 1987  23 PIT NL  23  75   6  17  0  0  0   4   4   1   9   1   2   0   3   0  0  .250  .301  .250  .551 *6
   29 Jimmy Stewart        68     0 1973  34 HOU NL  60  81   6  13  0  0  0   3   9   1  12   1   3   0   1   0  0  .191  .295  .191  .486 /574
   30 Ellie Rodriguez      66     0 1976  30 LAD NL  36  90  10  14  0  0  0   9  19   2  12   3   0   2   1   0  0  .212  .400  .212  .612 *2
   31 Ossie Blanco         66     0 1970  24 CHW AL  34  71   4  13  0  0  0   8   3   0  14   0   0   2   1   0  1  .197  .225  .197  .422 *3/7
   32 Art Gardner          65     0 1977  24 HOU NL  66  70   7  10  0  0  0   3   3   1  15   1   1   0   3   0  0  .154  .203  .154  .357 7/89
   33 Mike Squires         65     0 1975  23 CHW AL  20  74   5  15  0  0  0   4   8   2   5   0   0   1   2   3  0  .231  .311  .231  .542 *3
   34 Boots Day            65     0 1974  26 MON NL  52  72   8  12  0  0  0   2   5   0   8   0   1   1   2   0  0  .185  .239  .185  .424 7/9
   35 Billy Jo Robidoux    62     0 1987  23 MIL AL  23  70   9  12  0  0  0   4   8   1  17   0   0   0   0   0  1  .194  .286  .194  .480 D3
   36 John Moses           62     0 1985  27 SEA AL  33  65   4  12  0  0  0   3   2   0   8   0   1   0   3   5  2  .194  .219  .194  .413 *8/7
   37 Tom Nieto            60     0 1988  27 MIN AL  24  62   1   4  0  0  0   0   1   0  17   1   0   0   2   0  0  .067  .097  .067  .164 *2
   38 Mike Edwards         59     0 1980  27 OAK AL  46  63  10  14  0  0  0   3   1   0   5   0   3   0   1   1  1  .237  .250  .237  .487 *4/D9
   39 Jerry McNertney      59     0 1966  29 CHW AL  44  71   3  13  0  0  0   1   7   0   6   0   5   0   3   1  1  .220  .303  .220  .523 *2
   40 John Wojcik          59     0 1963  21 KCA AL  19  67   7  11  0  0  0   2   8   2   8   0   0   0   0   2  0  .186  .284  .186  .470 *7/98
   41 Willie Bloomquist    58     0 2008  30 SEA AL  34  67  12  13  0  0  0   3   9   0  15   0   0   0   1   7  2  .224  .328  .224  .552 9/8647D5
   42 Dale Sveum           58     0 1998  34 NYY AL  30  64   6   9  0  0  0   3   4   0  16   0   0   2   2   0  0  .155  .203  .155  .358 *3/5D
   43 Eric Owens           57     0 1997  26 CIN NL  27  61   8  15  0  0  0   3   4   0  11   0   0   0   2   3  2  .263  .311  .263  .574 /7849
   44 Benji Gil            57     0 1993  20 TEX AL  22  66   3   7  0  0  0   2   5   0  22   0   4   0   0   1  2  .123  .194  .123  .317 *6
   45 Jerry Dybzinski      57     0 1981  25 CLE AL  48  67  10  17  0  0  0   6   5   0   8   0   5   0   0   7  1  .298  .355  .298  .653 *6/45D
   46 Mick Kelleher        57     0 1974  26 HOU NL  19  62   4   9  0  0  0   2   5   0  10   0   0   0   1   1  1  .158  .226  .158  .384 *6
   47 Chris Heintz         56     0 2007  32 MIN AL  24  61   0  14  0  0  0   7   3   0  12   0   2   0   2   0  0  .250  .288  .250  .538 *2
   48 Vic Harris           56     0 1975  25 CHC NL  51  64   6  10  0  0  0   5   6   0   7   0   1   1   0   0  0  .179  .254  .179  .433 7/548
   49 Ron Brand            56     0 1971  31 MON NL  47  61   3  12  0  0  0   1   3   0   5   0   2   0   0   1  1  .214  .254  .214  .468 6/57842
   50 Keith Drumright      55     0 1978  23 HOU NL  17  59   5   9  0  0  0   2   3   0   4   0   1   0   2   0  1  .164  .207  .164  .371 *4